Masstermind Disappointment

A hollow victory today for my Patriots, who rang up 56 points on a road game against the thoroughly frightening Buffalo Bills on SNF. The game was well in doubt into the second quarter, when noted Pats Killer JP Losman connected with Ewok Roscoe Parrish on a long TD pass that was so totally offensive pass interference, I set my dog on fire in protest. (Luckily, Hobbs had his vengeance in the fourth quarter, when he returned a fumble for the Pats' 8th touchdown of the night. and the one that finally made me relax and realize that this one, too, was in the books.)

In the next drive, Brady was called for his first intentional grounding of the year, and I immediately IM'd all my fellow Massterminds. "Here we go!" I said, and was immediatley joined by dozens of notes of assent. First the NFL moves the game to a night game, just to make the Pats' bye week rustiness a little longer. But the real killer was when the Orlando Magic totally cheated their way to the first loss of the season agains the Celtics.

I'm sorry to say this about the now 8-1 Celtics, who still have the top record in the league and all... but if this kind of thing happens again, I think we have to seriously consider making them leave the New England area. It's been nearly two months since a New England fan (and, of course, no one cares about the NHL, unless the Bruins were really really good, too) had to deal with the utterly *common* experience of dealing with defeat.

As a Masstermind, it sickened me, and utterly took all of the joy out of today's 46 point squeaker. I can only hope that the team will do better next week against those AJ Feeley-led Eagles. (I am assuming, of course, that Donovan McNabb does not make the start with his bad ankle. If he does, you know that the fix is in.)

Oh, and one final point -- all of you who were so cowardly as to take the Pats with just the ordinary point spread, rather than the Masstermind spread that I took? YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER.